AT least one person was injured overnight in a shooting near the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland, Baltimore, after an SUV ran into a barrier — and a suspect was in custody, according to reports.

“NSA police and local law enforcement are addressing an incident that took place this morning at one of NSA’s security vehicle entry gates,” the agency said in a statement.

“The situation is under control and there’s no ongoing security or safety threat.”

NBC News aired aerial images of what appeared to be police surrounding a handcuffed man on the ground outside the NSA facility in the suburbs of Washington, DC, reports the New York Post.

A black SUV appeared to have crashed into a concrete barricade near a toll-booth-style entrance gate along Maryland Route 32 near the NSA campus in Arundel County, officials said.

Bullet holes were visible in the vehicle’s front windows and airbags were deployed. Blood-stained material could be seen on the ground.

The local NBC affiliate earlier reported that three people had been injured outside the headquarters of the top-secret intelligence organisation responsible for global US electronic eavesdropping.

US President Trump has been “briefed on the shooting at Ft. Meade”, and the White House offers thoughts and prayers with those who have been affected, spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.

The FBI said it was sending agents to the scene.

Despite prominent highway signs, motorists occasionally take the wrong exit and end up at the NSA’s tightly secured gates. Most drivers then follow the orders of armed federal officers and turn around without getting into more trouble.

But in March 2015, one person was killed in a firefight after a vehicle with two people on board tried to ram a gate at Fort Meade. The driver ignored commands to stop and barriers were deployed.

NSA cops opened fire at the vehicle, which crashed into a police car. One of the vehicle’s occupants died at the scene, the NSA said. The other suffered gunshot wound the chest.